Athearn GP40 loco

[torikoos]

What happened was that a lot of the older blue box Athearns were designed with the wide hoods to fit the old style Athearn motor. Rail Power Products came out with scale width hood bodies for the older Athearn wide hood models as well as some other models that Athearn didn't produce like the Gp40x, the Gp60 wide cab and b-units, and the Cf7. After Horizon bought Athearn, they also bought Rail Power Products and reworked and cleaned up the tooling for better detail. The result is that some of Athearn's new stuff is new tooling, some of it is older tooling that has been cleaned up for better quality pieces, and some of their new models are altogether new tooling of models that they never made before. Horizon kept on the Athearn management, and they also hired new modelers in management positions. I've known most of these guys when they were local model railroaders here in So Cal before they went to work for Athearn and they are the "cream of the crop" of modelers in So Cal.

Well in that case, you could possibly be our 'mole' :-) <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=62399#">posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=62399#</a><!-- l -->
Are you still in touch with some of these guys? I'd really like to see a nice GP 40 or other GP series switcher , particularly as a Genesis release, it's about time. Most GP's on the market at present are designs from years ago, or are found with detailing great for a starter, but for more critical modelers there's not much about at present. The Atlas units were the best we had so far I believe , but not all road names are currently available....
Oh and while I am at it, <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=62399#">posting.php?mode=quote&f=17&p=62399#</a><!-- l --> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE release a California Northern GP15-1 ! It's only a matter of a new paint job, they already have a shell with nose gong style bell!

There, rant over :-)